


Rebirth

by Citron_Swiftvale



Series: Cinder's Rise [3]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Action/Adventure, Anal, Anal Sex, Blake is a pervert, Blow Jobs, Cunnilingus, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Imprisonment, Kissing, Master/Servant, Master/Slave, Oral Sex, Pegging, Porn With Plot, Redemption, Romance, Rough Oral Sex, Slavery, Smut, after the end, pissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-05
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:01:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27885685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Citron_Swiftvale/pseuds/Citron_Swiftvale
Summary: Their relationship growing stronger than ever, Cinder and Jaune are suddenly thrown into a situation that could tear them apart and seal the fate of Remnant for eternity.
Relationships: Jaune Arc/Cinder Fall
Series: Cinder's Rise [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2023457
Comments: 11
Kudos: 18





	1. Ambush

“I still can’t believe you’re having sex with her. I know Ruby told you to make her your personal meat toilet, but for you to go _through_ with it?” Blake didn’t disguise the repulsion evident in her expression and voice.

“I never planned to do it with her. And she’s not my meat toilet,” said Jaune. “But do we _have_ to talk about this?”

They were on a cargo transport on the way to Mistral; Blake had used her former partners in the White Fang to re-establish underground networks that had faded away after the Peace of Remnant, so now they could move between the continents away from prying eyes. Jaune at least had an easy cover story for why he was no longer in Argus: his large crop of sisters had dispersed across the entire world, marrying men and women from every kingdom, the youngest even moving to Menagerie with a Faunus after Ruby had struck down all laws against interspecies marriage. He could go almost anywhere using a family visit as an excuse, though his sincere trips to see his sisters had grown far less frequent when Cinder had joined his household.

Now Cinder had gone to the upper decks for some air, leaving Blake and Jaune alone between boxes of canned goods and handcrafted toys, ripe for the awkward questions Jaune had been dreading.

“I’m just trying to understand, Jaune,” said Blake, nervously scratching her head behind her cat ears. “She was a big help at Evernight castle, I’ll admit that. And with the situation we’re in, she’s a valuable ally. But a _fuck buddy_?”

_She’s more than that_ , Jaune wanted to say, but he weighed the repercussions and decided against it. He could have brought up Adam too, but felt that impolite as well. “She’s changed a lot,” he said instead. “She really is trying to be a better person, and I’m giving her that chance, no matter how much she hurt me. And she hurt me deeply. I don’t think anyone will accept what we’ve become, but that’s not what’s important to me.”

“What do you two even have in common?”

“Uh, I guess we both attended Beacon Academy under false pretenses?”

Blake studied him a moment, then shrugged. After a little time passed in silence, she drew her knees up to her chest and keeping her gaze firmly on the floor she asked, “The thing Cinder asked for, did she, um, use it on _you_?”

“Really Blake?” Jaune exclaimed, throwing up his hands.

“I’m sorry, it’s just that I’ve been trying to convince Sun and—” her hands flew up to her mouth and her cheeks went red. “Oh _Dust_. Look, I’ve always been curious about these things, okay?”

Jaune’s cheeks were also bright red, thinking back to the night when Cinder rode him the first time, stuffing his insides with the oversized strap-on Jaune now knew was almost certainly from Blake’s personal collection. She’d promised Jaune would have his turn, but he’d been too tired after what she did to him to partake in their usual role reversal. The burning pain from having his colon widened came coupled with the shivering pleasure he got from the dildo rubbing against his prostate, and Cinder’s hand had roved over his body, lightly dancing over his neck or teasing his tongue or reaching down and tugging at his cock. Her loving ministrations were a stark contrast to her brutal treatment of his asshole.

She made him orgasm numerous times despite his protests and screams, the sensations all the sharper because of the bolt of silk that blocked his vision so he could only focus on Cinder’s touch. When he’d flopped over on the bed breathing heavily, slick with sweat, she made sure to slide down and lick and suck his cock with a ferocity that managed to make him stiff again, even though by that point he was so sensitive that it actually hurt to have his penis stimulated any further. She dove in, kneading his aching stomach as she admitted him into her throat, thick ropes of saliva dripping from her lips and coating his testicles. Her eye turned up to gaze at him with a rude defiance while she sawed her head up and down. Jaune grabbed her hair and bucked, filling her mouth with yet another blast of his semen—and that hurt too, after coming so much already. She got up on her knees, straddling him, and instead of swallowing she opened her mouth so he could see the white liquid pooling on her tongue and flowing down her cheeks, down over her scarred and heaving body. At last, she leaned forward and gave him a light but very messy kiss on the forehead.

“Thanks for that, I needed it. It’s...it’s what my stepmother used to do to my father,” she said, only getting a “Ha,” from Jaune in response.

He was dealing with the aftermath of that right now, because Blake’s questions were only drawing attention to the dull ache he _still_ felt all through his lower body. It took everything not to squirm while he sat on the floorboards because of her reminder, but he knew if he got up to walk around or showed even the slightest grimace, Blake would immediately know why.

“Please? We’re friends, you can tell me what it’s like” Blake insisted, and Jaune groaned.

He hadn’t thought _this_ was the issue Blake would end up pressing; he was sure she would have interrogated him about how he could possibly be in a physical relationship with the woman who killed Pyrrha, not how it felt like to get pegged for the first time.

Jaune felt a pang of relief when Ilia came running down from the upper deck to interrupt them, but that was immediately displaced by a sense of dread in response to what the chameleon Faunus said.

“We’ve spotted an Atlesian airship, at least five bullheads, and a dropship.”

“Where did they come from?” Blake exclaimed, scrabbling to her feet.

“Out from behind the mountains on both sides of the pass. More coming from out front. They’ve got us trapped.”

“That means they were waiting for us,” Blake said.

“An ambush.” Jaune also sprang up, deploying his sword and shield. “A whole airship, though? That many bullheads? That’s overkill!”

“I guess with the war over the reserves needed something to do,” said Blake. “Let’s go.”

* * *

A chill wind howled through the pass and Cinder more than ever wished she could drive it off with fire, along with the mass of aircraft that coalesced upon their little cargo ship in ever greater numbers. All she could do was draw her scimitar and join Jaune and Blake as they ran up on the platform that formed the roof of the transport.

“Any progress on getting this collar off me?” Cinder asked when they were within earshot.

Blake’s eyes had gone wide at the array of the Atlesian fleet that had positioned itself all around them, and Cinder had to repeat herself. “What? Oh.” Blake shook her head. “No, we didn’t figure it out yet.”

_Damn_. There wasn’t much Cinder could do immediately with her semblance still suppressed by the collar. Jaune also looked bewildered, and she wished she could reassure him, but things were looking bad. They had no heavy cannon since they were traveling incognito as a merchant vessel, and they could have never predicted such a show of force. One moment she’d been on the upper deck leaning over a railing and sighing since she felt a bit guilty she’d put Jaune through such a rigorous fucking the last time they were together, and then a swarm of ships had suddenly materialized out of the mists all around them.

Sun Wukong and the two other Faunus, the chameleon and the dog, had also assembled up above, but their expressions on assessing the situation were equally dire.

“If we dive, we might be able to lose them in the pass and continue on foot,” Blake said, “Sun, can you—”

She didn’t have a chance to finish her order before a mass of red petals zipped in a twisting spiral onto the deck.

Cinder’s breath caught and she felt her chest constrict. _No, not now, not face-to-face_. Jaune had promised her she’d never have to encounter this person again until she was ready.

She most certainly wasn’t ready.

The swirl of rose petals condensed into a red cloak that billowed out to reveal a group of huntresses with their weapons ready, though wobbling a little as their feet gained purchase on the iron skin of the transport. The only person who landed with any grace was a short young woman, her cloak drawing back close around her, wielding a scythe that weighed as much as she did.

Ruby Rose.

The mere sight of her made Cinder’s gorge rise and panic set into her very bones. Her hand was starting to shake around the hilt of her sword.

“We have you surrounded,” said Ruby. “I suggest you might want to surrender?” She flashed them all a toothy grin.

Jaune and the others had instinctively drawn together, weapons ready, with no sign that they were going to lower them but also no sign they would leap in to attack. Cinder recognized some of the huntresses who were positioning themselves around the group from Atlas, though she couldn’t place their names.

“Marrow,” said one, a short woman with her head shaved save a strip of hair down the centre, “I guess I can’t be surprised you joined your own kind, but this is especially disappointing. Don’t you miss being between my awesome thighs?”

Marrow’s fluffy tail twitched in response.

“Harriet, can it. I did _not_ want to hear that,” said the much taller, muscular woman to the immediate right as she shrugged a large hammer off her shoulder.

“It’s hopeless. We’re outnumbered,” Jaune said, and Cinder had to agree with him, no matter how much she desired not to.

Blake was the first to sheath her blade. “Fine. We surrender.”

“Oh good! This way no one needs to get hurt. At least, not now anyway,” Ruby said, making a gesture to her companions and then firing off a flare to signal the surrounding ships. “Um, sorry about all this. I tried to do this discreetly but you guys made it _way_ too difficult, eh he he.”

Cinder tried to hiss a response but the large huntress had already moved in and inserted a syringe in the side of her neck. Just a quick tickle, and then she felt the world fade away.


	2. The soul stone

Ruby’s team for the extraction were all huntresses that she had either fought in the past or who hadn’t known her before the Peace of Remnant. Penny, Winter, Weiss, Yang—all were noticeably absent. _Of course she wouldn’t want any of her friends here_ , Jaune thought. _She knows what we know and she can’t risk them learning the truth from someone they trust_. He could say anything he wanted to the former Ace Ops members and they wouldn’t believe a word of it. Not that he could have said anything; the huntresses who took them were the last people he saw for a long time, swimming in and out of consciousness from the tranquilizers they’d stabbed into him just after Blake surrendered. He was vaguely aware that they’d taken him to the Atlesian airship, and there he stayed unable to move or speak, eventually sinking into a dreamless sleep.

 _Cinder…_ he thought shortly before that, trying to locate her, but even the movement of his eyeballs felt sluggish. Then Pyrrha’s face swam into view, holding a finger to her lips.

When he woke up again, he was in a holding cell and Harriet had applied a pair of cuffs and held what he assumed was the antidote in a spent hypodermic. He could tell they weren’t in the air anymore, but the rough stone walls reminded him more of Evernight castle than anyplace in Atlas.

“Come along,” Harriet ordered, passing him off to a pair of androids who escorted him up several staircases to a pillared chamber.

“Cinder!” he called out, seeing her brought in from the other entrance and roughly cast forward on her knees. He sprinted over to her, and the android guards made no move to stop him. Not that he could help with his arms bound like they were, but she was worse off: they’d secured her hand to her waist, and it was a struggle for her to worm her way back to her feet.

He was so focused on helping her up that he hadn’t noticed the person waiting for them.

“You two are getting along so well!”

Cinder’s eye went wide with terror. Jaune couldn’t hug her then, but he tried his best to bring Cinder close.

“What’s the meaning of this, Ruby?” he demanded. “Where’s Blake?”

Ruby was sitting on a high chair, some antique throne for a lord of Mistral long dead, his faded portrait hanging on the wall behind it. To her side was a long table, the only thing resting on its surface a silver plate holding a strangely-shaped black stone. She dismissed the robots with a wave of her hand and both sets of double doors at the end of the hall creaked closed. “Blake? What, are you telling me you’re after her tail now? But I guess I can’t blame you; Ilia’s into her, Sun can’t get enough of her, and she’s all Yang ever talks about. Her butt is its own kind of superpower.”

“Ruby…” Jaune growled.

“Oh,” Ruby seemed downcast at his reaction. “She’s safe. I’ll be talking to her later. But you two, well, I thought I had to deal with you first. And how is your faithful servant doing?”

“I’ve had worse days,” Cinder croaked, but Jaune could feel the way her breath caught and struggled in her chest. He knew that being in the same room as Ruby was a nightmare for her.

“You were both well on your way to having a happily ever after,” the red-cloaked huntress said. “But it’s just like the story of the man with the beard of blue. Just stay out of one room in the castle, he said, and his wife still couldn’t resist. I guess you know why I had to use force, right? You found something and I didn’t want you doing anything rash. I—I don’t want any hard feelings…”

“It’s a bit late for that, don’t you think?” Jaune shot back.

“I guess you’re right.” There was a note of genuine sadness in Ruby’s voice. “The chamber in Evernight castle was a test. But you’ve probably figured that out by now.”

“How could you make a deal like that?” Cinder asked, her voice cracking. “ _You_.”

“So, you really did find that out. It’s—I—” Ruby cast her eyes to the ground, seemingly ashamed. “Well, I guess the gig is up, huh? She can explain it better than I can.”

Ruby raised her head, and Jaune watched in horror as what seemed like drops of ink spread and swirled from her pupils, infecting the rest of Ruby’s once-silver eyes, and her irises darkened to the colour of fresh blood. He remembered those eyes, how small he felt under their regard, each one an endless pool of malice.

“ _Dust_ ,” Cinder said quietly, frozen by the sight.

Ruby’s lips crooked up in a sad smile. “Hello Cinder.”

Cinder’s body shrank even further against Jaune’s, but he felt a sudden sense of dread that there was nothing he could do to protect her.

“You have found out so much, clever girl. I used to think you were foolish but now...well, it’s true that I predicted something like this would happen when I joined myself to Ruby Rose.” Ruby’s voice had become several registers lower than the usual cheerful squeak, a smoother, more mature tone, carrying a hint of what Jaune remembered of Salem’s haunting speeches. “You had already found out my plan to call down the gods when you turned against me. But, my dear, you were right to do so. Before Ruby came to me, I had found a way to summon the Brothers Grimm in judgment without having all the relics together. And no one will ever know I engineered such a grand event, because gods do not keep their promises. They can do whatever it is they like.”

 _What?_ Jaune gave a questioning glance to Cinder, but her attention wasn’t on him. She shoved Jaune away using her damaged shoulder and strode up to Ruby, taller but seeming so insignificant under that strange black stare.

“You were going to destroy the world just so you could die!” Cinder exclaimed.

“That was my intention, yes. Either become powerful enough to destroy the gods or make them destroy the world and me with it. But the gods would not grant me that. They divined my scheme the moment I reached them. The Brothers told me my punishment would continue, that I had not learned humility. This cycle would go on and on as long as I kept my mindset the way it was. And after they sent me back from the celestial plane, Ruby came to my castle.

“To put it simply, Cinder, I was broken. I could continue fighting, yes, stewing in my bitterness for another few thousand years. But Ruby’s arrival showed me another way. I could become someone— _something—_ else. I had divined the mystery behind how Ozma passed on his soul and merged himself with another. I realized I could do that as well by making my own adjustments to the aura transfer device Ozma had invented. And who better to do so with than someone so...so completely different from me.”

Jaune couldn’t help from gaping, his mind rejecting the notion out of hand.

“You’ll just displace her,” said Cinder. “You were always one to assert your will over others.”

“ _No.”_ Ruby’s eyes flashed, briefly banishing the Grimm effect of Salem’s eyes before it slowly settled back. “The process takes years to complete. We are two souls now, separate in one body. We negotiate. But Ms. Rose can always take back control, and it will not always be thus. A human brain cannot stay riven like this for long. In time our thoughts will flow together, each voice indistinguishable from the other, and we will be reborn as one person, neither Salem nor Ruby.”

“Is that _person_ still immortal?” Cinder spat.

“The curse will follow me in whatever body I choose. But it won’t matter, because that person won’t be me. _Salem_ will be free from the curse.”

“That’s quite the loophole,” Jaune said, still not quite able to believe it.

The ink retreated from Ruby’s eyes once more. Her next words sounded so small compared to the previous grand speech. “It wasn’t just her idea. We worked it out together.”

“I find that difficult to believe,” said Cinder.

“We already knew there was no way anyone could kill her. Jinn told us that. I had no idea what I was going to do when I went into that castle. It just happened that—that Salem found out there really was no way for her to die, either. There really was no peace in store for Remnant unless we were willing to make a sacrifice together. So, we did.” Ruby slipped off the throne, causing Cinder to stumble back a few steps. The huntress turned to Jaune. “I didn’t have it in me to rule Remnant, to keep it united. We had an alliance against Salem then but it was ready to fall apart at any moment. People were waiting to take power, and I wouldn’t have been able to stop them. Those kinds of decisions...I just couldn’t make them. But Salem could. Together, we could build on the ruins of this shattered world something that would last.”

She did not speak in the way Jaune remembered Ruby used to speak; that manner still came out in bouts of her old self that Jaune recognized every so often. Neither was it the voice of Salem. _I guess this is the beginning of that new person_ , Jaune thought. Brilliant, commanding, ruthless.

“I’ll use Salem to clean up the hurt she caused,” Ruby finished.

“You really believe that?” Cinder’s voice was bitter.

“It’s our pact. But enough about me. Er, us.” Ruby raised a hand to her forehead, grimacing as if she’d overcome a sudden headache. “I’m trying to right wrongs where I can. This, um, arrangement was supposed to do that, but I have something better.” She walked to a table beside the throne and gingerly took hold of the stone there. Ruby hefted it and held it up to the light. “This is a soul stone. It can channel aura. When you fought Pyrrha and absorbed part of her aura, the Grimm parasite inside you took a part of her soul with it.”

“What?” Cinder had been about to lash out again, and stopped cold. “Salem never told me that.”

“Salem didn’t tell you a lot of things,” said Ruby. “When she took the maiden powers and your Grimm arm away, she realized what had happened and transferred what spark was left from Pyrrha out of the parasite and into the stone.”

Jaune stared at the rock as it gave a faint pulse and shimmer. “But that doesn’t change that she’s dead,” he murmured.

“Doesn’t it? Haven’t you guessed by now? It’s not a huge leap. There’s a soul transfer device in this fortress. We put Cinder in one tube and the stone in the other, and there you have it. Yet another wrong made right again. You had your fun with Cinder, and now you can let her finish off her redemption and bring the woman she killed back into the world alongside her.”

He felt dizzy, sick, the words echoing through his head. Cinder’s terror when faced with Ruby didn’t compare with the fear she showed when she tilted her head towards him.

_Bring Pyrrha back?_

Jaune’s legs went weak, tears starting to form from the mere thought.

_Could it really happen?_

Ruby was watching him steadily. “It will be your choice in the end. I’ll give you one night to think about it.” She carefully put the stone back on the plate.

“You’re...you’re,” Cinder’s breath was coming in sharp heaves, her face gone even paler than before. “How _could you_? Don’t I have any say in this?”

Ruby’s eyes went cold, her words even more so. “No. I made Jaune your master just so he could make this choice. You’re his servant, and you _will obey_.”

Next, Ruby brought her lips close to Jaune’s ear, and whispered, “One night. Choose well.”

* * *

It was the worst night of Cinder’s life. Worst even then the long hours in the Grimm pits waiting to die. She had accepted her death then; not now, when her stomach was tied in thick, roiling knots, making her unable to sleep, unable to move. This was not death; this was losing herself to someone else. And once again, her choice was taken away. All her life, she’d fought against the walls that bound her, only to end up squeezed more and more. Her relationship with Jaune Arc had at long last seemed a reprieve from that, only for Ruby to firmly plant her fate in his hands.

She wanted to see him, to talk to him, to scream at him. But the androids had tromped in as soon as Ruby had presented Jaune with his choice, and dragged them apart. She fought and struggled but with her bonds and lack of semblance it was like the rantings of a small child.

 _I will not cry. I won’t_.

The cold stone floor of her cell grew wet. She huddled there, arm clenched round her belly, sobbing quietly to herself in the dark.

When they fucked, Jaune didn’t call out her name. He called Pyrrha’s. Something she tolerated, but which had become an increasing source of doubt. She more and more wanted him calling out to _her_ , to be focused on _her_ , and now his voice desperately calling for Pyrrha replayed in her head over and over again.

 _Be strong. Be brave. Endure_.

She couldn’t.

She was too exhausted to resist when the large huntress retrieved her the next day. Once again Atlesian knights led her down the winding paths of the ancient Mistralese fortress, but to a different room this time. It was dimly lit, and the first thing that struck Cinder was the hum of latent electricity. As her eye adjusted, she made out two glass tubes both able to admit a person, just like their discovery in Evernight castle.

She stumbled back. _No_.

Ruby emerged from behind the machine, soul stone in hand, and the door opened again as Jaune was rudely shoved inside.

“Hi Jaune. Everything is ready. You just have to say the word.”

Cinder looked at Jaune, trying to read _something_ in his anguished face, _anything_ to tell her he hadn’t done what she thought he’d done. He looked back at her, seemingly defeated, and then broke off his gaze to stare firmly at the flagstones.

_No. Please, Jaune, please..._

“I won’t let you do it,” said Jaune.

Cinder’s breath caught. _Jaune..._

“I had a lot of time to think in my cell. I loved Pyrrha, I really did. I hated Cinder, for so long. But this isn’t righting any wrongs. Pyrrha is dead even if a part of her soul survived. Whoever comes back won’t be Pyrrha anymore, when their souls are merged together. And whoever that is won’t be Cinder anymore, either. They won’t be...the women I loved.”

Tears came streaming down Cinder’s face despite herself, but they weren’t the kind she’d tried and failed to suppress since her father died. _Did he say he...?_

She ran to him, tripped and fell into him as they steadied each other despite their bonds, not saying anything because nothing else needed to be said.

Ruby studied them with a rapt curiosity, and set the soul stone aside. And then, she started clapping happily.

“I knew you’d make the right choice, Jaune,” she said.

Cinder hated that she was here, for this moment. Or that for some reason she was cheering them on. She turned to glare, realizing at that moment that her fear of Ruby, or Salem, or anyone, really, was suddenly gone. “What do you _want_?” Cinder asked pointedly.

“Oh, I guess I’m interrupting, aren’t I? But it’s just so sweet.”

“What the _fuck,_ Ruby?!” Jaune cried out.

Ruby looked taken aback, sheepish, and then she straightened out, her eyes going black again. “What we mean to say, is that this was another test. To see if Jaune truly did care for you, Cinder.”

“ _What_?” Jaune asked, stricken.

“I know it’s hard to believe from the way I’ve treated you, Cinder, but ever since I took you under my wing, I have seen you as my daughter, someone to fill the gap left by the children I had lost. I cared for you, in my own way. That’s why your betrayal hurt me so, why my punishment was so harsh. But even now, I wanted some way to give you a happy ending.”

“Then the soul stone…?” said Cinder.

Ruby raised an eyebrow. “Everything I’ve told you is true. The stone has part of Pyrrha’s soul. It would not be a real test, without consequences.”

Cinder was at a loss. The revelation that Salem had cared for her made her feel giddy inside, and she hated herself for that. The scraps of approval she’d fought for when Salem was her queen were so fleeting, and to suddenly know her feelings had been returned couldn’t help but trigger something dep inside her, some primal need for affection that had been so cruelly snatched from her when her mother and father died. But to ache for approval from such a cruel being was a stark demonstration of her own weakness. She knew that now.

“You’ll have to stay here a while longer,” said Ruby, back once more to herself, or a form of herself. “But I hope that meant something to you, Cinder.”

“I can’t forgive you for this,” Jaune said.

“I know. I was prepared for that.” Ruby’s sigh was a long one. “Still hurts, though.”

The androids came to take the two prisoners away.


	3. She burns

They were put in a cell together, this time, and Elm and Harriet released their bonds so they could move about freely within the confines of those walls. Both huntresses seemed troubled at their new orders but carried them out regardless, locking the door and leaving the couple be.

Jaune opened his mouth to speak but was immediately enveloped by Cinder’s harsh kisses as she drove him back against a cot. He nearly lost his balance, gasping as her tongue stabbed at his own, and then he took her by the shoulders and gently pushed her away from him before lightly taking her chin between his thumb and forefinger.

She gave him a questioning glance and he answered her with a kiss of his own, much less aggressive than hers, long and lingering. He undid the straps on her dress and let the fabric fall, then traced his fingers along her breasts and abdomen and down, down, until she moaned into that kiss. She in turn wrapped her hand around his neck, ran it along his back, tugged and loosened his clothing as well.

He stepped back so she could shed what remained and he could admire her body. Cinder was imbalanced, her form covered in scars and torn, discoloured patches of skin showing where she had been burned by Ruby’s silver eyes. But Jaune found every mark beautiful.

“I love you,” he said, a whisper, and saw how she lit up at his words.

It didn’t matter that they were still imprisoned, that a cold drought chilled the air or that the stone floor was cold and unyielding. They were together, and he wanted her.

His lips traveled down her neck and across her chest, his tongue exploring the furrows of twice-healed flesh from all her past battles, down her abdomen and further. He guided her with his hands on her hips, maneuvering her against the wall as he lapped eagerly at her groin before moving his hands to her butt, spreading her cheeks apart so he could taste the insides of her anus.

Cinder’s face pressed against the stone, eyes closed, mouth hanging open, her arm crooked just above her head to provide leverage. Jaune drew himself to full height and lined his member up with her sphincter. It was a difficult entry, but she opened up and received him in time, letting out a little squeal as he moved further and further inside her. It felt hot, and slick, and exquisitely tight. With one hand he carefully stroked her hair and the other he hooked under her thigh, pushing one finger, then two, into her dripping vagina as he held his penis within her.

“Oh Cinder,” he said, pushing her closer to the wall, then reluctantly dragging himself out of her. He enjoyed the way her insides clung to him as if they didn’t want to let him go.

“Jaune,” she exclaimed softly.

It was unlike their previous sessions. He made no play at punishing her, of causing her pain; no slapping, no hair-pulling, no element of humiliation. Those were all based in some way on things that happened in Cinder’s past. Jaune gave her something new, thrusting with long and slow strokes while she panted under him, reveling in every shiver and quake of her flesh, in every small expression of pleasure he drew out of her lips, at every squelch and bizarre noise that came from her butt. He loved how she called out his name as she came the first time, her bladder going loose and gushing piss against the wall of the cell, her bowels tightening around him and then releasing as if hit with a sudden shock.

But he especially enjoyed the way she reacted when he said her name in the throes of passion, her whole body seeming to flower and accept him with a thrill of excitement at the very sound.

He leaned his head next to hers, stroking her hair one last time and then moving down to her cheek before feeling her hot breath on his fingers. She bit down on his hand, softly, so her teeth only broke the skin, and he felt her contract around him in another orgasm. At that moment he thrust in deeply to meet her until his testicles struck the folds of her pussy, and with a final muffled call of her name he burst in her guts, spraying his seed up into her belly while sharply twisting the fingers he’d buried in her front to pinch the warm flash between his cock and his hand. That pulled the last straw of resistance out of her, and her legs gave way so that they both collapsed on the cell floor, heaving from the intensity of the experience.

As Jaune’s cock slipped out a flood of his semen sprayed out after it, and Cinder rolled onto her back with a look of utter bliss.

“Jaune, I—” she began, then she suddenly scrabbled back against the wall. Jaune quickly whipped around, then hastily tried to shield his cock with his hands.

Blake was standing at the cell door looking shocked, embarrassed, and the slightest bit guilty. “Sorry to interrupt,” she said, trying and utterly failing to sound nonchalant, “but someone came in to break us out of our cells and we’re going to escape, if you want to join us.”

“How long were you _watching_?” Cinder asked, snatching up her dress and clumsily trying to pull it on over her head.

“I’m sorry,” said Blake. “I just froze up. I, um, didn’t expect to see that.”

Cinder rolled her good eye, then looked at Jaune, and at once started to laugh. He found himself starting to giggle to, and quickly began putting on his clothes.

“I’ll just...go,” mumbled Blake, beating a hasty retreat from the door.

* * *

Cinder’s legs were still unsteady when she wobbled out of the cell, a casualty of the rigorous fucking Jaune had just given her. She wished she could bask in the afterglow. She’d crossed yet another bridge with Jaune Arc, an important one, and she didn’t want to leave the joy and satisfaction of reaching that point behind.

She fixed her dress and faced the Faunus escapees. “So, who came to your rescue?” she asked Blake, but was quickly silenced when she saw another person at the end of the hall.

Green hair, dark skin, a cat-like grace: Emerald Sustrai.

She locked eyes with her former apprentice, and Emerald quickly turned away with a nervous twitch.

 _No, she still won’t face me_. _She came back for me, but she won’t face me,_ Cinder thought. _I wouldn’t either_.

“Cinder,” Emerald said curtly.

“It’s been...a long time,” Cinder replied. By then, Emerald had already begun stalking away as if ready to run.

“She used some kind of illusion to take out the guards and huntresses. She even managed to steal our weapons out from under their noses,” Blake hastily explained as they walked briskly to keep up with Emerald’s lead. “But there are still the Atlesian knight and plenty of people in this facility, so we’ll need all the firepower we can get. I’m sorry, Cinder, but I wasn’t honest with you before. We did figure out a way to remove your collar without killing you, I just didn’t—”

Cinder raised her hand to stop the cat Faunus from speaking further. “I understand. I would have done the same. As long as you get it off me now, we’ll have a better chance of getting out of this alive.”

“Okay.” Blake nodded. “Okay. Ilia?”

Jaune came up beside Cinder, strapping on the last pieces of his armour and receiving his sword and shield from Sun. He took Cinder’s hand as Ilia went behind her with a device that sparked and flamed from two metal prongs. Whatever pressed to her nape, though, wasn’t hot, but extremely cold. She shivered, and then the slave collar split and fell from her neck with a clang.

After squeezing Jaune’s offered hand she let go and inhaled deeply, then coaxed her semblance into becoming manifest. She felt the warmth flowing out of her heart and into her veins, how it prickled and brushed her bones, her skin, how it trickled into her fingers, until at last a flame began dancing in her palm. She smiled—one more thing returned to her, her semblance, to stand beside her will to live and newfound love.

They moved up through the castle, Emerald and Sun forming a more than capable vanguard—every time a person came in their path, Emerald would cast an illusion so they didn’t notice the band making its escape. If it was an Atlesian Knight, Sun was quick to disable them.

They were coming through another hallway when Emerald halted after scoping out a corner. “We have trouble up ahead. Big trouble.”

“How big?” asked Ilia.

“Atlesian Paladin big.”

“Curses,” Blake said. “I guess it was only a matter of time before they discovered our cells were empty.”

“How close are we to the outside?” Cinder asked pensively, running a hand along the cold stone.

“This is the outer wall,” said Emerald, her voice sounding thick. “We’re close to the drawbridge.”

“Then instead of walking into trouble, let’s go around it,” Cinder said. She took Jaune by the arm, “Use your semblance, would you?” He took up position behind her, his hands resting on her shoulders. She felt a thrill at his touch again, the way his fingers brushed her skin, and had to dismiss it as she placed her hand flat against the stone. “Everyone else stand back.”

They didn’t need further instruction. The tingle from where Jaune’s skin met hers increased as his aura joined and enhanced her own. She focused on her breathing, on the heat building up in her core, made even stronger through Jaune’s semblance, and directed that heat so it radiated out from her palm.

Ilia and Sun were casting nervous glances up the corridor where the clank of the Paladin grew nearer. Cinder put that out of her head, instead channeling her inner furnace until the stones began to faintly glow orange, then red. Steam billowed out from between her skin and the mortar. The seams in the wall began to hiss and pop.

Her touch could turn dirt to glass, but with Jaune enhancing her own abilities, she knew she could do so much more. The individual stones were trembling now, distorted by the shimmer which bent the super-heated air around it. Sweat dripped down from her arm, her forehead, her hair. She clenched her teeth, and pushed.

The wall gave way, briefly, and then exploded outward in a wave of lava, scorched stone and loosened mortar, knocking back her companions so that in the end, only Cinder was standing in the gate she had just created.

She turned, breathing heavily, a huge grin on her face through the soot and the sudden cloud of vapour that rose from her handiwork sizzling in the downpour outside.

The others collected themselves and they followed her lead out into the pass as the rest of the wall, weakened from the intrusion, crumbled.

All the barriers were taken away from her. She was free, perhaps for the first time in her life, and she fought with wild abandon as they made their break for the bullhead that could make good their escape. A swathe of fire and ash followed in her wake.

* * *

Ruby sat atop a watchtower overlooking the smouldering ruins of the Mistralese castle. Over the ridge, a small ship took off into the sky. She contemplated giving chase, sighed, and shook her head. Her scroll was buzzing; she switched it off. Her soldiers were all wondering where she was and why she wasn’t issuing commands.

She dismissed them from her thoughts. It was hopeless, anyway. She’d recalled most of the forces she’d summoned to aid in the ambush of Blake’s companions, preferring that so many people didn’t know where she had taken the captives, even if they had no way of knowing who the captives really were. After the demonstration below, the remainder would have no chance against Cinder now that she had her semblance back.

Salem had trained her well.

“Remnant will know who we are now,” she said quietly.

 _True. We always meant for that to happen_.

“But not so soon.”

_When you live as long as I have, you learn that not everything goes as well as you meant it to. This is a small obstacle, but we have an eternity to overcome it._

While her captives had been wreaking havoc, Ruby had gone in secret to the soul transfer machine and rigged it so that the mechanism reduced itself to slag. There was no use giving Cinder any further ideas.

Presently, she turned Pyrrha’s soul stone in her hand.

 _It is either this or fight them_ , Salem’s voice reminded her. Of course, Salem was beginning to sound more like Ruby’s inner monologue, just as Ruby was beginning to sound more like her.

“If they fought me, if they really wanted to kill me...that would’ve only ended in their ruin.” There was no way to physically harm Ruby in her current state. A bullet could pass through her and her flesh would instantly seal itself closed; if someone tried to drown her, she simply wouldn’t need to breathe. She had become ageless, deathless. Even with all the huntresses incapacitated and the androids ripped to shreds, she would have defeated them all on her own, hurt them, probably killed them. For all the awful things she had done under Salem’s tutelage, that was one thing she could not bring herself to do.

Ruby tucked the soul stone back in her pouch.

“So, what now?”

_We go to the forests or the borderlands and into hiding. We’ve done much to bring Remnant together, enough that it shan’t fall apart so easily. We’ll maintain the Peace of Remnant from the shadows, and should strife rear its head once more, we will return to rule again._

Ruby nodded. “I hope... I hope they’ll be happy,” she said quietly as she cast her hood over her head. Taking a deep breath, she dissolved into a mass of rose petals, leaving a smattering of tears to join the puddles on the flagstones.

The End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn’t think when I wrote the first story in this series that I’d continue with it, but I guess the lure of this worst/best ship was just too powerful. Anyhow, it’s finally over! 
> 
> In the original outline, Cinder acted on Ruby’s hint about the soul stone at the end. But when I got there, I thought the new Ruby Rose was still sentimental enough there was no way she’d march into a certain duel to the death with her former companions, and that Salem’s reasons for turning away from evil (in her own way) were strong enough she’d rather leave them be.
> 
> I’m pretty sure the next few episodes of RWBY will make the premise for this series completely unworkable, but such is life if you wrote after-the-ending fanfic for an ongoing show.
> 
> Thanks for reading and your comments/kudos!


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